Making Christ the Ultimate Focus

Hebrews is a challenging book to study, not just because it’s longer than many other books in the Old Testament, but also because it was written to an audience with a very different background than our own. This was a message delivered to a Jewish audience.

The main objective of Hebrews is to get people to let go of Old Testament Judaism so that they would cling to, or embrace, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Old Covenant prepared us for the New Covenant, but it’s not compatible with what has come. You can’t embrace both at the same time. It’s like comparing the original Ford Model-T to a car today. There’s clearly a correlation, but you can’t take parts from one and use it in the other. The underlying mechanism is the same—the internal combustion engine—but the design or the implementation is too different to be compatible.

And to underscore the incompatibility between the Old and New Covenant, we have the words of Paul in Galatians chapter 1, where he is arguing against the Judaizers who claimed that obedience to the Law of Moses was required for salvation.

Paul says—There are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

You cannot take the Old Covenant intended for Israel and try to force it into, or combine it, with the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. That was a vital message for the Jews of the first century.

Now, as different as our lives are today, it’s important to know that even if we didn’t grow up in Old Testament Judaism, and even if we aren’t tempted to go back to that system, we still have things that we are holding onto that are incompatible with truly following Jesus Christ.

Some of those things are sinful to pursue, like sexual immorality or drunkenness. Other things might be good in themselves, but we can’t follow Christ faithfully if we make them the primary pursuits in our lives. No desire or pursuit can be greater than Jesus Christ.

This is why Jesus said: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

He isn’t saying that you need to hate your family. He’s using the word “hate” in a comparative sense. Your love for Christ must come first.

All of us have things in life, whether they are inherently sinful or not, that we will pursue rather than Christ. And that is sin. And so, the message of Hebrews, even if we are not Jews, can help us turn back to Christ. We all need to turn away from one manner of life toward a new one.

In trying to help people turn from reliance on the law, toward faith in Jesus Christ, you need a two-fold strategy. You need to elevate who Christ is and what He has done, and you also need to expose the weakness or the worthlessness of the Law.

This is the same strategy you and I should be using as we battle sin in our own hearts and lives. We need to see the greatness and the goodness of Jesus, and we need to recognize the powerlessness of whatever else it is that we’re pursuing.

This morning, we’re going to get some reminders about the weakness and powerlessness of the Old Covenant, and by extension, they are also reminders  about the worthlessness of anything else that we pursue outside of Jesus Christ and His design for our lives.

So, instead of just thinking about the Old Testament, I want you to think about the sin in your own life. Think about the things that you are hanging onto or going after that don’t honor Christ. And in remembering those traps, you need to preach to yourself a number of messages.

The first message is this: This cannot complete me. This cannot complete me.

This message comes to us in verse 1—For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The Old Covenant Law included a shadow of good things, but since we are all sinners, it did not and could not include those good things themselves. A shadow is an expression of something that is real, but it’s not the actual thing. If the sun was at your back, and you saw a shadow in the shape of a person on the floor in front of you, you might turn around to see who it is. The shadow is an indicator, or a preview, of the person.

The author of Hebrews tells us that the law was a shadow, or a preview, pointing to the arrival of “good things.” The Law was the appetizer. It was the salad. It was never intended by God to be the true satisfying meal.

And if that’s the case for the Old Testament Law, ordained by God for Israel, how much more is that true for everything else that we rely on or chase after? Those things cannot complete us.

That’s what the author of Hebrews is getting at when he says the Law cannot “make perfect those who draw near.” Whether it was the father who took the sacrifice to the Tabernacle, or the priest who took the blood into the tent, no one was made perfect by that sacrifice.

But isn’t that the lie of the sin in our lives? Share this juicy piece of gossip. Look at this girl. Watch that video. Share that photo. Tell that person off. There are countless things our sinful nature inclines us toward doing, and it’s all under the false promise that this will complete us. This will fill something that is lacking in my life.

That’s the underlying heart behind every commercial or ad you watch. Your life is missing something, and this will give it to you. That is a deception, and you need to call it out. This will not complete me.

What you and I most need is to know God and to be reconciled to Him. And the only way that happens is by God’s grace through our faith in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. No external rituals can do it. No life hack is going to fix that for you. It doesn’t matter how organized the system is, or how devoted and invested you are to it, it cannot fill what you most need in life.

How do we know that? We know because all those things need to continue. Those kinds of things can’t stop. And this is a second message we can preach to ourselves: This will never be enough. This cannot complete me, and this will never be enough.

In talking about our own sin, Proverbs 27:20 says: Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man. Sheol and Abaddon are referring to the place of the dead. In other words, the place of the dead never says, “You know, we’ve had enough people die. We’re full. No more vacancy. Let’s just stop having people die.” It doesn’t work that way, right? People will keep dying until Christ returns.

And it’s the same with our sinful, greedy nature and this fallen world. You cannot hear a joke so funny that you never want to laugh again. You cannot see a woman so beautiful that you never want to see another woman again. You cannot have a meal so wonderful that you’ll never want to eat again, right? Sin and greed are consuming desires. They always want more.

Proverbs 30, verses 15 and 16 give us the image of a leech living off the blood of its victim. It just takes and takes. It says there: Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: [16] Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.” Those are images of a desire that cannot be completely satisfied. And that’s how our sin works.

In the sense of the Old Testament Law, the author of Hebrews is saying that those sacrifices never ended. If they were enough, they would have stopped.

Hebrews 10:2—Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

If the sacrifices of the Old Covenant could be enough, there would have been an inherent mechanism to make them stop, but there wasn’t. Just like a consuming fire with enough fuel, the system always takes more.

And according to verse 3, instead of leaving the people feeling truly cleansed and right with God, these sacrifices were a reminder of sins every year.

Verse 4—For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

In the same way that the Jews of the first century needed to recognize the imperfection of the Old Covenant, we need to remind ourselves that it is impossible for any religious system, or ritual practice, or pattern of life, to give us true satisfaction and true unity with God. Whatever it is you’re chasing or hoping for, it cannot complete you, and it will never be enough.

This doesn’t mean we can’t look forward to certain things. But it means that nothing we look forward to should be our final hope, or our final satisfaction. Your house is going to disappoint you. Your marriage is going to disappoint you. Your kids are going to disappoint you. Your job is going to disappoint you. We can and should invest energy in all these things, but we need to work to make sure our eternal hope and joy isn’t in those things themselves, but rather in Jesus Christ.

In pointing the audience to Christ, the author of Hebrews takes a passage out of Psalm 40, written by David, and ascribes it to Jesus Himself. Look at verses 5-7—Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

What is this quote saying? In the broadest sense, it’s saying that God would not be pleased merely with the sacrifices themselves. God mandated that Israel offer sacrifices, but it was never the sacrifices themselves that would please Him. What pleased God was a heart of obedience and trust.

Daivd expresses this again in Psalm 51 which is a confession of his adultery and murder. He says: You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

So, here’s a third message you need to preach to yourself: What matters most is pleasing God. What matters most is pleasing God. In times of temptation, there is something else that matters more to us than pleasing God.

Well, in the Jewish system, many people assumed that God was automatically pleased with the sacrifices themselves. But what God wants is an obedient heart, an obedient life.

If you look at Psalm 40 in the Old Testament, it says that God opened David’s ears. That could be a reference to forming them in the womb. It could also be a reference to a heart that is willing to obey.

Well, in some Greek versions of the Septuagint, the word “ear” gets changed to “body.” And that’s not really a major change as much as it is an interpretive decision. God forms our ears, and He forms our entire bodies. And God also wants our ears inclined to Him as much as He wants all of our bodies to obey Him.

But in switching the term to “body,” we get an additional interpretation of this passage. The author of Hebrews uses it to highlight the shift from the Old to the New Covenant. God is no longer going to be pleased with the sacrifices and offerings under the Mosaic Law; He is going to be pleased with a body. Whose body is that? Whose body is going to perfectly bring forgiveness and transformation? That is the body of our sinless Lord offered on our behalf.

Jesus came to fulfill God’s plan, to do God’s will. And verse 10 tells us—And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

When we mess up, when we sin against God, how does that get fixed? How should we respond? We don’t need some animal sacrifice; we don’t need some external ritual. We need to look to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is how you please God, even after you sin. You please God by confessing your sin and by looking once again to the once-for-all sacrifice that pleases God.

“This is all my hope and peace… Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” How can you please God? You look to the One who already pleased God perfectly on your behalf. You trust in Jesus. And if you have never done that before, God is calling you today to do it. Pray to God. Confess your sin, and trust in the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Surrender your life to Him by turning away from whatever it is that you’re trusting in for satisfaction and peace and fulfilment. Trust in Jesus.

And for those of us who have already done that, we need to keep doing it. Not because we need to get saved again, but because we need to remind ourselves of our commitment and of our weakness. We always trust in Christ, remembering that no one or nothing else can fill what is lacking in our lives.

Verse 11 is a closing summary of the Old Testament sacrifices. It says: And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. They will never be enough.

Verse 12 gives us the transition to Christ: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. [14] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Who can truly satisfy? Who can prefect you? Who can guarantee the eternal victory? Only Jesus. Only Jesus. He died once. He sits now at the Father’s right hand. And He is coming again in glorious victory. All who refuse Him, or reject Him, or rebel against Him will be judged forever, but all who receive Him will have eternal glory.

As much as the New Covenant is more glorious than the Old, the life to come, with Jesus Christ, will be infinitely greater and more satisfying than anything this life can offer. We know this by faith because God has told us in His word. And we know it by experience because we’ve tasted it through the Spirit of Christ that indwells us now.

In seeking to honor and serve God, I’ve got one final message we should preach to ourselves, and this is it: I don’t need anything else. I don’t need anything else.

I’m not saying that nothing else is good or beneficial. But we need to remind ourselves that nothing in this world is a necessity. We don’t need a bigger house, or more obedient children, or a better paying job. We don’t need to more “me time.” Those might be blessings we experience, but we can’t assume them, and we should not clench them in our fists.

Like I said this is more of a Gentile extension of the message of Hebrews. Speaking to the Jews, verses 15-18 point them back to the blessings of the New Covenant. It say this: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, [16]“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” [17] then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” [18] Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

The New Covenant of Jesus is enough. You don’t need anything else. Perfect cleansing, perfect forgiveness, perfect restoration to God is ours because of Jesus Christ, if we place our faith in Him. There is still a practical transformation that is working itself out, but in the eyes of God, because of our union with Christ, He calls us holy. He has forgiven us. He has made us His children. And so, we serve Him.

“Need” is an interesting word because it can mean something is lacking, but it can also mean there is an obligation. When we tell ourselves, “We don’t need anything else,” what we mean is that there is nothing lacking in our salvation. There’s no missing piece to our salvation.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there is no obligation. Nothing more is required for our salvation, but since we are saved, we are required to obey. So, what we need, is to obey. That’s God’s calling on our life as His children.

I don’t know specifically what those kinds of things are in your life right now that draw you away from wholeheartedly serving Christ, but you and I are called to either cast it away, or place that desire in its proper place before the Lord.

That desire cannot complete you. It does not define you, in Christ. That desire cannot satisfy eternally. That pursuit will never be enough. What matters most is pleasing God. You body is a living sacrifice to Him, as an expression of gratitude and love for what Christ has done in His body. So, you don’t need anything else to be saved. But you need to turn to Jesus every day.